The History of Religious Imagination in Christian Platonism by Christian Hengstermann

The History of Religious Imagination in Christian Platonism by Christian Hengstermann

This collection provides the first in-depth introduction to the theory of the religious imagination put forward by renowned philosopher Douglas Hedley, from his earliest essays to his principal writings. Featuring Hedley’s inaugural lecture delivered at Cambridge University in 2018, the book sheds light on his robust concept of religious imagination as the chief power of the soul’s knowledge of the Divine and reveals its importance in contemporary metaphysics, ethics and politics. Chapters trace the development of the religious imagination in Christian Platonism from Late Antiquity to British Romanticism, drawing on Origen, Henry More and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, before providing a survey of alternative contemporary versions of the concept as outlined by Karl Rahner, René Girard and William P. Alston, as well as within Indian philosophy. By bringing Christian Platonist thought into dialogue with contemporary philosophy and theology, the volume systematically reveals the relevance of Hedley’s work to current debates in religious epistemology and metaphysics. It offers a comprehensive appraisal of the historical contribution of imagination to religious understanding and, as such, will be of great interest to philosophers, theologians and historians alike.

This book makes a compelling case for the important contribution of the Cambridge Platonists to the history of ideas and their relevance for contemporary philosophyDouglas Hedley's erudite work is well represented and critically engaged with by seven outstanding scholars. Hengstermann is to be congratulated for this brilliant collection. * Charles Taliaferro, Overby Distinguished Chair and Professor of Philosophy, St. Olaf College, USA *

Christian Hengstermann is Associate Lecturer in the Department of Classics at the University of Wuppertal, Germany, and Fellow of the Cambridge Centre for the Study of Platonism at the University of Cambridge, UK.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781350217690
ISBN 10	1350217697
Title	The History of Religious Imagination in Christian Platonism
Author	Christian Hengstermann
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Year published	2022-09-22
Number of pages	248
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.